Sunday, August 28, 2005

In this context I have been doing research on John Gilbert Winant,who was US Ambassador to the UK 1941 to 1945. He was replaced by FDR in a huff because the Pres was not happy with Ambassador Joe Kennedy making just those very kinds of demoralising remarks. Joe Kennedy was thought to be less than enthusiastic about tackling the Hitler threat. What is even more interesting is that Winant was aRepublican, but FDR trusted and admired him. He had been greatly influential in pressing GOP congreeemen to pass the Social Security Bill.

FDR was right to appoint Winant and replace Kennedy; Winant was greatly loved by the British people, went down into the bomb shelters with ordinary Londoners instead of going to the US Embassy shelter (reminds me of brave Rummy on 9/11) , refused to eat the luxury foods sent over to the Embassy but distributed them and himself ate the same rations as Londoners etc etc. He was given an honour in Scotland ,and to this day, 'Winants' (a group of American youngsters) come over to the UK to volunteer for good causes in his name. A long-winded way of thanking Rummy for bringing up that tidbit about Kennedy Senior.

C

AND YOUR FATHER, TOO [Jonah Goldberg]

From a reader:

At yesterday's Pentagon press conference, Secretary Rumsfeld was commenting on all the doom and gloom about the Iraqi constitution, and he observed how there are always naysayers who see defeat around every corner. He said something like, "At the height of World War II, a prominent American diplomat predicted that 'democracy isfinished in Britan, and probably in America too.'"

That "prominent America diplomat," of course was Joseph Kennedy. Isn't that just about the most delightful statement to come out of A press conference in the last six months? Somebody go down to the bar and tell Teddy: "Rumsfeld just slapped down you and your old man in the same breath."

Sunday, August 21, 2005

Here is a message for our friends in the grief-based community: Really, you must cut this out. We are tired of having our emotions worked on and worked over; tired of the matched sets of dueling relatives, tired of all of these claims on our sympathy, that at the same time defy common sense. The heart breaks for everyone who lost relatives and friends on September 11, as it does for the relatives of the war dead and wounded, as it does for the sons of Paul Wellstone. It does not break for MoveOn.org, Maureen Dowd, and Gail Sheehy, who have not been heartbroken, except by a string of election reverses, and are using the anguish of other people in an effort to turn them around. Especially, it does not break for George Soros, who, after squandering millions on the Kerry campaign, is now using poor Cindy Sheehan to get back in the action, and it does not break for political operative Joe Trippi, late of the Howard Dean meltdown, who is trying to do the same thing. She is now the vehicle for a collection of losers, who will use her, and then toss her over and out once she has served their purposes, or more likely failed to do so. Her family has broken up under the effects of this circus; she has now lost her husband, as well as her son. Please, send her back to her therapist, and what is now left of her broken-up family. And please--do not try this again.

The US and the west foolishly financed Arafat afte Oslo with the hope he would suppress terrorism and he turned it right around against Israel with more terror attacks, and resurrected the worst it hateful anti semtic speech the world has seen since Hitler which is seeping into our own politcal debate.

All bascially with US funding at the tune of $85 million a year into accounts under Arafat's personal control. We financed a gangster statlet in the territories and it's foolish to think gangsters will be grateful for anything. This withdrawel only makes sense if it's coupled with Democracy for Arabs. That's the Arab world's best hope.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

I'm not sure many of today's "Peace Activists" remember peace activists of long ago. A J Muste was one of them. It struck me how much he sounds like our Dick Durbin. Muste's is a shameful story and I think that will be how History treats Durbin too.

"I believe my freedom as a Shi'ite and as a religious person will never be complete unless I preserve the freedom of the Sunni, the Christian, the Jew, the Sabai, or the Yazidi. We will not be able to preserve the freedom of the mosque unless we preserve the freedom of entertainment clubs.[...]"What is happening in Iraq is a real massacre and a real war between truth and falsehood, between a democratic government which relies on the public, and the remnants of the Umayyad, Abbasid, and Ottoman tyranny. Iraq will be a graveyard for them and for those behind them.

"The Terrified and Self-Defeated Arab States, Who Fear the Establishment of a Democratic Regime in Iraq, Would Prefer a … Dictator Like Saddam"

"The terrified and self-defeated Arab states, who fear the establishment of a democratic regime in Iraq, would prefer a stupid and reckless dictator like Saddam to a democratic regime in Iraq, because the epidemic of democracy and the winds of freedom will reach them, whether they like it or not.

"This article by New York Times columnist David Brooks is a pleasant reality check of the culture we live in. There's no denying that the author has reputation of seeing the sunny side of things in contemporary society, but that in itself is no flaw in evaluating reality."

After listing a series of improving statistics on all sorts of bad stuff, Brooks concludes,

The first thing that has happened is that people have stopped believing in stupid ideas: that the traditional family is obsolete, that drugs are liberating, that it is every adolescent's social duty to be a rebel.

The second thing that has happened is that many Americans have become better parents. Time diary studies reveal that parents now spend more time actively engaged with kids, even though both parents are more likely to work outside the home.

Third, many people in the younger generation, under age 30 or so, are reacting against the culture of divorce. They are trying to lead lives that are more stable than the ones their parents led. Post-boomers behave better than the baby boomers did.

Fourth, over the past few decades, neighborhood and charitable groups have emerged to help people lead more organized lives, even in the absence of cohesive families.

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Finished The Orientalist by Tom Reiss. The biography of an amazingly complicated man and I'll leave you to sort it out by viewing the link or reading the book. You'll understand where the "blood and oil" term came from and see while people often talk of a 1,000 years of enmity between Jews and Muslims there was an influential group of Orientalists who sought a fusion of Islam and Judaism before WWII.

Also just finished The Somme by Australian Historians Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson.

The whole of the 20th century since 1918 was a resolution to the catastrophe of the first world war and today's war against Islamic extremism the final act in resolving the mess left in the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Someday I'll write my own essay on this notion. In the meantime I've been reading WWI Histories. Expect more of these histories to come as the 100th anniversary of the war approaches in 2014.

Chapter 11 is the most interesting part of the book. There Prior and Wilson reflect on the aftermath of the first day of the Somme battle and how misunderstandings of what happened took root in the histories to this day. The image of rigid adherence to the tactic of the slow-march, and shoulder-to-shoulder advance before German machine guns accross no-man's land quite false. It's fascinating insight on history and historians that its taken this long to realize it never happened. Plent of other mistakes made, but rigid adherence to this style of advance not one of them.

"I stood that morning on the roof of my building in lower Manhattan and watched United Airlines Flight 175 strike the south tower of the World Trade Center," Vincent said in a December 2004 interview with Frontpage Magazine. "At that moment, I realized my country was at war -- because of the 1993 attack on the Trade Center, I figured our enemy was Islamic terrorism -- and I wanted to do my part in the conflict. I'm too old to enlist in the armed services, so I decided to put my writing talents to use."

"'Words matter. Words convey moral clarity. Without moral clarity, we will not succeed in Iraq. That is why the terms the press uses to cover this conflict are so vital. For example, take the word “guerillas.” As you noted, mainstream media sources like the New York Times often use the terms “insurgents” or “guerillas” to describe the Sunni Triangle gunmen, as if these murderous thugs represented a traditional national liberation movement. But when the Times reports on similar groups of masked reactionary killers operating in Latin American countries, they utilize the phrase “paramilitary death squads.” Same murderers, different designations.'"